By Carly Mayberry
E! Networks is launching a broadband channel that will deliver streaming video and original content exclusively for the Web, the channel said Tuesday at the Television Critics Assn. winter press tour in Pasadena.
Dubbed "The Vine @ E! Online," the channel will raise its virtual curtain during E!'s "Live From the Red Carpet: Golden Globe Awards" preshow broadcast Monday and will showcase the simulcast in addition to the ceremony's postshow highlights packaged to be seen by online viewers.
The initiative follows such other models as MTV's " Overdrive," VH1's "V Spot" and Comedy Central's "MotherLoad" into the growing trend for using broadband as an extension of a network's traditional programming.
"Our programming style and presentation are a natural fit in terms of attaching the E! brand to the new media platforms that seem to swell in number by the week," E! Networks president and CEO Ted Harbert said.
Offering original content as well as streamed video from the upcoming unscripted series "#1 Single," starring singer-songwriter Lisa Loeb, "Vine" also will include celebrity interviews, movie trailers, outtakes and sneak peeks from other E! shows. The channel will be organized into six categories, including "E! News & Gossip," "What's Hot," "Red Carpet," "Wild Zone," "Movies" and "E!TV Bonus."
To lure online viewers to its initial broadcast, a 20-minute package of choice moments compiled from the evening's preshow will be made available exclusively to those online and will remain available for several days. The original content also will be distributed for mobile devices and to subscribers of Sirius Satellite Radio and XM Satellite Radio.
Also announced at the E! session of the TCA tour was the hiring of Debbie Matenopoulos ("The View") as the fourth member of the new cable team that will cover the red carpet before award ceremonies. She joins Ryan Seacrest -- a lead anchor and managing editor at "E! News" -- Isaac Mizrahi and Giuliana DePandi, also a lead anchor at "E! News."
Reuters/Hollywood Reporter
Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited.
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